#FreeTheNipple, a popular social media protest, took the streets of Iceland by storm yesterday as women rallied support behind a 17-year-old student who received flak for going bare.

Adda Þóreyjardóttir Smáradóttir, chair of her high school’s feminist society, dubbed March 26 “Free The Nipple Day”. She inaugurated the day by posting a titillating image of herself, which received criticism from male classmates and harassment from online trolls. In a Facebook post, she said the bullying caused her to delete the photo, but her efforts did not go unnoticed.

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The Free The Nipple movement has set out to challenge unfair laws and stigmas against topless women in the United States and around the world. The organization stands “against female oppression and censorship”, also challenging social media companies on their policies against nipple freedom (namely Instagram).

#FreeTheNipple has a strong social media campaign with active supporters including Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, and Cara Delevigne. The campaign has also produced a film.

A newspaper story out of liberated France tells of a brave campaign by feminists to coincide with the gift-giving season, and beautifully illustrates the sensitivity and devotion of truly dedicated social justice progressives.

That country’s feminist domestic legion — just to dissociate it from the more famous and, just possibly, even braver French Foreign Legion — has executed a brutally stupid nuisance campaign of inserting tiny leaflets into various Christmas toys imprinted with the harsh declarative, “This toy is sexist.” Sound the Dies Irae.

They do so, they are pleased to claim, to alert little boy kiddies when they get a train set, or little girl kiddies when they get a nurse doll, that they are being abused; that they are being shouldered into “stereotypes”; and that Santa (their parents) is confirming all the known “gender biases.” Finally — this is really good — their fortune-cookie sabotage is meant “to raise awareness … that toymakers and sellers play a part in the fact that not a single little girl asks Father Christmas for a sword.” (Absolutely my italics.)

Well, if there is a cause I want to join, endorse and publicize it is surely the impoverishment of a world where little girls don’t have, by right, cutlasses and rapiers, samurai steel and Toledo blades, with which to terrorize the domestic hearth and practice parry and thrust, hack and pierce, on the Christmas turkey — or more likely their weaponless male siblings. (“Now, Ashleigh, put away the battle-axe and eat your peas.”)

I’m sure there are many young women out there who grew up “swordless” — need I say that in these enlightened times I am not implying anything Freudian here — and will, consequently, live impaired and unfulfilled lives.

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Is this the feminism of 2014, flocks of feminists going undercover into the Toys R Us stores, foisting micro-propaganda into tiny toddlers tea sets and light sabres? The story is an outlier, some might say — but the some would be very wrong. In an era when college students under the mighty sway of heteronormative patriarchy have conjured up the concept of “micro-aggression” and stamped their books with “trigger warnings,” there is surely nothing too silly, too intellectually vacuous, for educated feminists to embrace.

Witness that most risible spectacle of Beyoncé — the Chanticleer of Bootylicious — giving a performance at the TV Music Awards that would have the most talented stripper envious of its lavish lasciviousness, assuming poses that would embarrass the most veteran proctologist, while on a backdrop, in bright lights and huge lettering the word “FEMINIST” flashed to the world how “empowering” the louche lewd and lecherous exhibition really was.

This is the same year when the Grand Twerker, Miley Cyrus, declared “she is one of the world’s biggest feminists.” And of course it is also the year when the currently green-haired queen of confessional feminism, Lena Dunham, drenched the market with her formidable musings under the title of Not That Kind of Girl, a biography memoir in the great tradition of Pamela Anderson and other literary ecdysiasts, which included a story of her being “raped” by a “mustachioed campus Republican named Barry” at her intellectual nursery, Oberlin college.

Am I “mansplaining” here? I surely hope so

Random House has since had to apologize to an well-known Oberlin conservative named Barry who threatened to sue. Dunham made the name up — she is a self-confessed “unreliable narrator.” The whole mess is a chaff harvest of folly and self-promotion — all in all, a triumph for “narrative” biography and a summit moment for the whole “always believe the victim” commandment of feminist catechism. Perhaps a tiny warning leaflet in Not That Kind of Girl — “this is probably fiction” — would help.

Am I “mansplaining” here? I surely hope so. Mansplaining is a bit of this year’s wombspeak, a coinage of great self-satisfaction and smugness which attempts to put down reconciling reality to facts, naming fables when they are fables, and contesting any of the dogmas of the enlightened sisterhood, as mere condescension from the other gender. It should be paired with “femsplaining” which is of course pure unshampooed truth — as determined, of course, by when and if it works for the cause.

All this is quite wonderful stuff. From Toys ‘R Us to Lena and Miley, these stories have served as admirable distractions from the trivialities of Boko Haram, the kidnapping and sale of young girls by demented fanatics, the horrid acid attacks on school girls from the frothing Taliban and their ilk, and the sundry brutalities and mass rapes by the world’s real women haters.

For as long as there is a swordless Sally, the feminists of the West have their own problems. But equally, as long as there is a Beyoncé and her bounteous bouncing booty, there is yet hope for us all, and redemption but a bump and a grind away. You go, girl.

National Post

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/rex-murphy-the-year-in-activist-feminsm/feed0stdbeyonceRacially sensitive emoji are coming to a keyboard near you, but maybe not for a whilehttp://news.nationalpost.com/arts/racially-sensitive-emoji-are-coming-to-a-keyboard-near-you-but-maybe-not-for-a-while
http://news.nationalpost.com/arts/racially-sensitive-emoji-are-coming-to-a-keyboard-near-you-but-maybe-not-for-a-while#commentsWed, 05 Nov 2014 16:17:29 +0000http://arts.nationalpost.com/?p=159564

Long-awaited racially diverse emoji characters could soon become a reality.

In a draft proposal of an update to the characters, the Unicode Consortium has laid out a possible method for making characters with a range of skin tones available to users.

“People all over the world want to have emoji that reflect more human diversity, especially for skin tone,” the draft says.

Emoji, which were developed in 1999 and still retain their Japanese name, were initially supposed to depict characters with inhuman, cartoon-like complexions — for example, a yellow or orange colour.

But as the use of emoji has widened to encompass much of the world, there has been increasing pressure to create characters that look like the people who use them.

Unicode/The Washington Post

The Unicode Consortium develops and maintains the software standard for how text and characters (including emoji) are represented in all languages on every device, including mobile phones and desktop computers. And the nonprofit corporation has faced pressure, including from the likes of Miley Cyrus, to act on the diversity issue.

The issue can’t be fixed unilaterally by device and software makers such as Apple or Microsoft.

In response to inquiries, Katie Cotton, Apple’s vice-president of worldwide corporate communications, told MTV in a statement earlier this year that the company is working with the Consortium — of which Apple is a part — to update the emoji offerings for all platforms.

‘There needs to be more diversity in the emoji character set’

“We agree with you,” Cotton said. “Our emoji characters are based on the Unicode standard, which is necessary for them to be displayed properly across many platforms. There needs to be more diversity in the emoji character set, and we have been working closely with the Unicode Consortium in an effort to update the standard.”

On its website, the Consortium noted that the process of adding characters to Unicode can take years.

“There is a long development cycle for characters, so the sunglasses character was first proposed years before Unicode 7.0 was released. Any proposals under consideration will also take time to assess and develop,” the Consortium said.

So it’s unclear how long it would take for this new draft to be come a reality — if it happens at all — although there undoubtedly will be considerable pressure to act quickly.

The draft says the next update — Unicode 8.0 — could include five options for skin tone based on a classification scheme developed by dermatologist Thomas Fitzpatrick.

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“These characters have been designed so that even where diverse color images for human emoji are not available, readers can see what the intended meaning was,” the document adds.

Diversity modifications would apply to a finite group of characters — 151 at most. At a minimum, the characters that might be modified to reflect human skin colour would be the ones that depict human faces; but they also could include emoji that depict human hands or smiley faces.

Users would potentially access the new palette of options by using a “long press,” which involves pressing and holding on a character to bring up a range of options.

Incidentally, Unicode president and co-founder Mark Davis is expected to discuss the hot-button issue of emoji diversity Tuesday in a keynote address at the Internationalization & Unicode Conference in Silicon Valley.

Jesse Helt — better known to most as the 22-year-old homeless man Miley Cyrus brought on stage at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards — has been sentenced to six months in jail for a probation violation in Oregon, Page Six is reporting.

Helt took the stage after Cyrus’ win for Video of the Year Award for Wrecking Ball, accepting the award “on behalf of the 1.6 million runaways and homeless youth in the United States, who are starving, lost, and scared for their lives right now.” He then directed viewers to Cyrus’ Facebook page, where the singer is accepting donations for My Friends’ Place, a shelter for homeless youth in Hollywood that she supports.

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Helt was arrested in 2010 for breaking into the apartment of a drug dealer who sold him “bad marijuana,” according to NBC. He was sentenced to three weeks in jail and probation, but violated his probation in August 2011, then again three months later when he failed to to meet his probation officer, broke curfew and failed to complete 88 hours of community service.

Tyler Anderson/National Post"Obviously the campaign starts now I'm willing to take anyone on to fight streetcars against subways in the next election and I can't wait for that," Toronto mayor Rob Ford said on March 22, 2012 after city councillors voted in favour of a Sheppard Avenue LRT line.

Page Six reports that it was an attempt to break into the world of modelling and a move to Los Angeles that led to Helt’s second probation violation.

Cyrus met Helt when she visited the L.A. shelter My Friend’s Place, where the two hit it off before Cyrus invited him to the awards show.

It was Helt’s August VMA appearance and acceptance speech on Cyrus’ behalf, where he brought attention to “the 1.6 million runaways and homeless youth in the United States who are starving, lost and scared for their lives right now”, that tipped Oregon officials off on his whereabouts and status as a wanted man.

After returning to Oregon and heading to trial — with a defense lawyer paid for by Cyrus — Helt was sentenced to half a year’s jail time on Tuesday. He will get credit for 57 days previously served, according to Page Six.

“I’d like to be viewed as a good person,” Helt said at the sentencing,” not as a nuisance to society.”

When MTV airs its 2014 iteration of the Video Music Awards on Sunday, it will be under the watchful eye of the Parents Television Council — lest the network allow a repeat of its 2013 Miley Cyrus/Robin Thicke twerk-fest.

On Monday, the PTC issued a warning to MTV, suggesting that last year’s ceremony resulted in “a public relations kerfuffle for your network that I feel certain you will not wish to repeat.”

“Parents and families around the country have had ample reason to be concerned about the material distributed and promoted by MTV over the years, particularly during MTV’s original programming,” the statement said. “While last year’s Miley Cyrus/Robin Thicke performance garnered most of the headlines after the fact, the sexually charged and otherwise inappropriate content of the show was not limited to them. Even more troubling was the fact that MTV still applied a TV-14 rating to the program, despite other adult-oriented performances and advertising messages. Such a rating was simply unacceptable to the families who depend on the television ratings system to be applied accurately and to the millions of families whose children are marketed to by MTV.”

MTV received numerous complaints after Cyrus’ performance last year, which saw the pop star making sexually suggestive gestures and dancing provocatively with Thicke.

In its letter, the PTC also suggested that MTV assure parents and other concerned viewers that Sunday’s awards show would adhere to its TV-14 rating by taking three steps: “Commit publicly that the program will not contain the type of explicit sexual content present in last year’s show”; “Commit publicly that the program will not violate MTV/Viacom’s own standards and practices as was alleged last year”; and “Commit publicly to rate the program accurately and in accordance with the TV Parental Guidelines which stipulate that crude indecent language, explicit sexual activity, or graphic violence is to be rated as appropriate only for adults — TV-MA.”

MTV has not responded to the letter. The 2014 MTV VMAs air Sunday, Aug. 24 at 9 p.m.

“She was dressed more in line with a video geared towards MTV,” one complaint read. “Her performance was impropriate [sic] for broadcast TV, as she grinded along there was a costumed performer depicting President Lincoln following behind her and alongside her and the character acted quite lecherous even patting her on the backside. Very patriotic for the 4th ya think?”

A second complaint — reportedly from a parent — took issue with the special’s PG-13 rating. “I am offended, appalled and ready to start taking public action to remove this garbage from our televisions.”

“Very graphic and disturbing for a Sunday evening 9 p.m. summertime broadcast,” the final complaint said.

The special, Miley Cyrus: Bangerz Tour, was filmed in Barcelona and Lisbon earlier this year. It features footage of Cyrus’ stage show as well as behind-the-scenes video.

The FCC is reportedly looking into the complaints, and has not confirmed whether it will be taking any action.

Miley Cyrus is postponing her U.S. tour until at least Auguest as remains hospitalized due to an allergic reaction to her antibiotics.

The 21-year-old superstar suffered from a sinus infection last week while in the middle of her “Bangerz” tour.

Cyrus’ representative told The Associated Press on Friday that the singer will resume the U.S. tour Aug. 1 in Uniondale, N.Y. The new dates will include seven rescheduled shows and two additional stops.

The European leg of the tour is still scheduled to kick off May 2 in Amsterdam.

The rep said that the former Hannah Montana star had an “extreme allergic reaction” to the antibiotic, cephalexin, which Cyrus was taking for her sinus infection.

Cyrus’s representatives have also released a statement on the starlet’s health.

“Miley was suffering from a sinus infection during her tour in N.C. a week ago,” it reads. “She was prescribed the antibiotic Cephalexin, which she has now suffered an extreme allergic reaction to. This type of extreme reaction can last from five to 27 days in these types of cases. She will remain hospitalized and is under a doctor’s care until we see some improvement in her condition and is asking for your compassion and privacy at this time. Miley is devastated about missing shows and possibly disappointing her fans.”

The star postponed a show in North Carolina last week because of the flu, and in St. Louis and Missouri earlier this week.

The Wrecking Ball star cancelled her Kansas City, Mo., on Tuesday when she was officially hospitalized for her allergic reaction.

Publicist Meghan Prophet said that the superstar was on “medical rest” as per doctors requests.

The celebrity posted a photo on Twitter of herself in what appears to be a hospital gown to let fans know that she was being taken care of.

The singer posted on Twitter early Wednesday that doctors informed her she would not be released on time to maker her St. Louis concert, scheduled for April 16. “I’m so sorry but somethings are outta my control,” Cyrus wrote.

As 1991’s Blond Ambition tour rolled in to Toronto The Good, Madonna was faced with the very real possibility of being arrested. As captured in the film Truth or Dare, when told plainclothes police officers were at the ready to take her into custody for the show’s simulated masturbation scene, Madonna replied, “Last time I was on tour, [ex-husband] Sean [Penn] was in jail. I guess it’s my turn.”

More than two decades later, simulated masturbation seems like child’s play compared to the circus of carnal exuberance and fleshy offerings that comprise Miley Cyrus’ Bangerz tour. But while Madonna was looking to be controversial – using sexuality as a tool for social unrest – Cyrus’ cause celebre is just that. In Miley’s world the end, as it were, is the means.

But such things serve a greater purpose and what may have begun as a bad girl protest against her formerly Disneyfied incarnation has become a phenomenon of, to steal a phrase from another pop supernova, girl power.

Which is why, as she first appeared sliding out of a picture of her own head, the screams of young ladies were deafening. But rather than the sounds of lust – as, say previous ACC occupants One Direction – these were screams of euphoria. And why the audience, of which an estimated 99.8% was female (nearly all the male washrooms were switched over to accommodate), were scantily clad without fear of ogling nor shame.

Dutch Prince Johan Friso, who was buried in an avalanche a week ago while skiing in Austria, has suffered severe brain damage and may not come out of a coma, his doctor told a press conference on FridayAMSTERDAM — Dutch Prince Johan Friso, who was buried in an avalanche a week ago while skiing in Austria, has suffered severe brain damage and may not come out of a coma, his doctor said on Friday.
Queen Beatrix's middle son, who gave up his right to the throne a decade ago, was skiing off-piste near Lech in the Austrian Alps, when he was caught in an avalanche. He was trapped under the snow for 25 minutes before he was pulled out unconscious, and has been in critical condition ever since.
[np-related]
"Because the prince was stuck under the snow for a very long time, he did not get enough oxygen," his doctor, Wolfgang Koller, told a press conference.
"The lack of oxygen led to a cardiac arrest, which lasted for 50 minutes. During this entire period the patient had to be resuscitated. This is an exceptionally long period, you can say too long a period," Koller said.
[caption id="attachment_144167" align="alignright" width="300" caption="REUTERS/Miro Kuzmanovic/Files"]<img class="size-medium wp-image-144167" title="File photo of Prince Johan Friso of the Netherlands posing during a photocall in the Austrian alpine ski resort of Lech am Arlberg February 19, 2011. " src="http://wpmedia.news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/friso1.jpg?w=300&quot; alt="" width="300" height="225" />[/caption]
Koller said if the 43-year-old father of two young daughters, hospitalized in Innsbruck near Lech since February 17, wakes from the coma his "rehabilitation will take months, possibly years."
"Our hope was that the patient’s mild hypothermia would provide some protection for the brain. This hope was not realised," Koller added.
Doctors were able to do an MRI scan on the prince for the first time on Thursday. "The family of Prince Friso will now look for an appropriate facility for the rehabilitation," he added.
Kollar was giving the first official details on the prince’s health since his accident last Friday.
Until now, the Dutch Royal House had limited itself to saying he was "stable, but not out of danger," with the hospital refusing to comment.
Queen Beatrix, 74, as well as the prince’s wife Mabel Wisse Smit and his two brothers, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and younger brother Prince Constantijn, were spotted arriving at Innsbruck University Hospital on Friday to visit him.
The Dutch royal family was vacationing in Lech, where it regularly spends its skiing holiday, when the accident happened, and members of the family have made daily visits to the prince’s bedside.
Although the second son of Queen Beatrix, Johan Friso is no longer in line for the throne after he married in 2004 without the government’s permission.
Austrian newspapers also reported Friday that Queen Beatrix had extended her stay in Austria for another week due to her son’s accident.
A Dutch government statement said Prime Minister Mark Rutte had spoken to the queen and Johan Friso’s wife by phone and had assured them the country "shares the royal family’s pain at this time of worry and sorrow".
He also called on people to "respect the privacy of the prince and his family" and allow them to digest the latest news from the doctors "with serenity and in private."
The statement also quoted Queen Beatrix saying the royal family was "touched by the many reactions and expressions of support over the last week".
An experienced skier, Prince Johan Friso had been out with an Austrian friend on February 17 when he was buried under an avalanche in the resort in western Vorarlberg province.
The friend, whom local media have identified as the director of the hotel in Lech where the Dutch royals are staying, was equipped with an avalanche airbag and escaped unscathed.
At the time, the avalanche alert level at the time was at four, the second highest.
Vorarlberg prosecutors have now launched a routine investigation into the accident and what or who might have caused it.
<em> With files from Reuters and AFP</em>

“The sluttier you are, the more likely it is that we would be friends,” Miley explained during the one of her multiple audience addresses, adding “No one’s gonna get judged.”

It’s that intention – of being equal rather than unattainable – that makes the experience of a Miley Cyrus show so unique. Stripped of any predatory or dominant intonations, Cyrus can get away with encouraging her female fans to make out (as she did with a “kiss cam” during Adore You), suggesting they flash her during the satellite acoustic covers portion of the evening or even brandishing the term “slut” — to take it back, of course. All of these can be seen as re-appropriations of hip-hop culture, but stripped of that context, Cyrus exposes their communal nature.

Likewise, but with considerably less success, Cyrus surrounds herself with a plethora of “freaks” as a means to ingrate herself in the Freak Show milieu. But being a blue-eyed, blonde-haired, extremely wealthy woman, this stunt fails for the same reason her other shtick works: it defines contrived lines by pointing to them with a giant foam finger.

With all this swirling in a psychedelic world of giant hot dogs, blinged-out cars, weed thongs and multiple selfies, it’s easy to forget Miley is actually a decent singer, providing the songs remain in her range. For the most part, Bangerz is a mid-tempo album which would likely translate as too slow for a no-frills arena tour — and the slow timing was one of the few missteps in Cyrus’ show.

REUTERS/Miro Kuzmanovic/FilesFile photo of Prince Johan Friso of the Netherlands posing during a photocall in the Austrian alpine ski resort of Lech am Arlberg February 19, 2011.

Despite having only three chart-toppers, she decided to save them all for the encore. The result was numbing for what could have been a cathartic performance (if I had my druthers, Party in the USA would have opened the show rather than steal the momentum from the powerful Wrecking Ball finale) but that’s the price you pay for a twerking, masturbating, meme-ing, furry-featuring extravaganza.

Police say an 18-year-old Miley Cyrus fan sneaked into her dressing room a day before her Omaha concert and left a note pleading her to meet him.

Omaha television station KETV says police reported that the man, Tucker Salvesen, entered a restricted area of the CenturyLink Center on Wednesday. He then posted a Twitter message to the pop star, telling her to look for his note.

Miley Cyrus, whose new bad-girl image is predicated in part on wearing little clothing and smoking lots of marijuana, is selling branded rolling papers on her current Bangerz tour, according to online reports from attendees of her Feb. 14 concert in at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver. But they’re not just any rolling papers: In the absence of actual bling on the merch table, Cyrus has opted for glammed-up rollies: the papers reportedly contain 24-karat gold leaf.

Or, at least, they’d better contain some precious metal: the papers are selling for $45 a pack, and two of them are also included in the purchase of Cyrus’ commemorative tour book – which, owing to its racy images of Cyrus, is reportedly only available for purchase to ticketholders aged 18 and older.

Cyrus has made no secret of her love of smoking marijuana in recent months, lighting a joint onstage at the MTV EMAs in November (the awards were held in Amsterdam, where marijuana is sold in coffee shops) and told Rolling Stone magazine in September that it is her preferred substance.

Cyrus’ Bangerz kick-off was otherwise a culmination of the singer’s expected tropes, including giant furry animals, barely-there leotards and, yes, some twerking. The world tour continues to June 13.

Phillip Chin/Getty ImagesMiley Cyrus performs on the first stop of her Bangerz tour in Vancouver.

Phillip Chin/Getty ImagesMiley Cyrus performs on the first stop of her Bangerz tour in Vancouver.

Phillip Chin/Getty ImagesMiley Cyrus performs on the first stop of her Bangerz tour in Vancouver.

It’s not likely that anyone here at National Post Arts & Life HQ would call Billy Ray Cyrus’ Achy Breaky Heart our favourite song. But we’d rather listen to its Top 10-charting 1991 original than its 2014 remix, released on Tuesday, which is a weird hip-hop mashup whose music video features a spaceship, a rapper named Buck 22 who doesn’t appear to have much on his resume, an inexplicable cameo from Larry King and a lot of underboob. And sideboob. And topboob. Basically, there’s so much boob in this music video, it makes Miley Cyrus’ VMAs performance look like an episode of Sesame Street.

The whole thing is just so, so weird, that we struggled to put together enough coherent, fully-formed thoughts to make up more than one full paragraph. So here’s a collection of observations, questions, criticisms and nightmarish suppositions we’ve made about Billy Ray Cyrus’ apparent attempt to out-sensationalize his 21-year-old daughter.

1. Larry King is no longer even current enough for CNN, but I guess we shouldn’t be counting on a song that samples Achy Breaky Heart to be super on top of pop culture.

2. What kind of horrible afterhours barroom story does Billy Ray Cyrus have about Larry King that he was able to con the CNN host into appearing in this music video, anyway?

3. Why are they incredibly specifically calling out Muhammad Ali? What is the connection between Muhammad Ali and Billy Ray Cyrus? Can anyone explain?

4. Does the fact that the opening sequence is black and white and the spaceship sequence is in colour mean it is some Wizard of Oz-style dream, or that it is the future? Because Buck 22 looked a lot younger back when he was walking around in Muhammad Ali’s backyard with a fishing rod a couple seconds ago

5. Openly acknowledging that this was a bad idea — “How did this happen?” / “I’d rather be lucky than good” — does not all of the sudden make it okay to go right ahead with the bad idea. Especially not when that’s one full chorus of a three-chorus song.

6. Are those supposed to be space-age bongs or something? They look like e-cigarettes. Have we reached the point in society when fake-smoking is now considered bad ass enough to make a rap (use that term loosely) video?

8. Pretending to be playing your guitar in a music video for a song that actually features a guitar is one thing. This song does not feature a guitar.

10. You would have to be in zero gravity for most of these back-up dancer’s costumes to work. There is one there that shows literally the most amount of underboob that is physically possible. It is basically a nipple-sling.

11. Also there is another one that appears to be two pleather straps that tie up at the perineum.

12. But honestly, the only way those … outfits … would stay on those women would be if they were made of actual tape. Which does not seem hygienic

13. Total shout-out to wearing pieces of a disco ball as shirts, though. I predict that will be a hot look for 2014.

14. “You’ve got me stuck on you like liquor:” I’m going to guess that the pick-up line that is based on you being an alcoholic is not going to be wildly successful.

15. Speaking of getting stuck, Would it be weird if Miley Cyrus showed up among all these electrical tape-clad women? What even constitutes “weird” in the Cyrus household?

16. I guess the lady playing the violin (in a song that does not include a violin) wasn’t into the whole taping-up-her-ladybits idea.

17. My lord, is this guy ALREADY bragging about being a celebrity? You are basing your inevitable celebrity on a song called Achy Breaky 2?

19. What is the likelihood that Billy Ray Cyrus has started answering only to “BRC”? We’re guessing high.

20. Look, you are allowed to think whatever you really want about Miley Cyrus twerking, but I think we can all agree that maybe her father shouldn’t be happily shouting-out the song where she fellates a sledge hammer in the video.

Miley Cyrus’ MTV Unplugged special, which is scheduled to air Wednesday night, will most definitely not be literally “unplugged,” but boy howdy does it ever sound special.

The hourlong spectacle, which Cyrus taped on Wednesday, will not offer a purely stripped-down version of the Wrecking Ball singer — at least insofar as her music is concerned. According to early reviews of the performance, Miley’s Unplugged show is an electric affair featuring the singer in a variety of provocative outfits and assuming a series of provocative positions — with a bit of country flare.

Below, five things you can expect to see if you tune in to the special on Jan. 29:

Like it or not, the tongue will come out to play. The singer has become famous for sticking her tongue out during performances (and in selflies, during interviews, in promo pictures, in music videos …) so you can definitely expect it to grace our presence on the small screen. And it’s not just Miley’s tongue, either! A promo photo for the performances shows Madonna, who will perform onstage with Cyrus, mimicking the junior pop diva’s signature move.

2. Swearing

In a review of the Unplugged special’s taping, Time magazine critic Emily Zemler notes that Cyrus “unleashed enough profanity to keep MTV’s Standards and Practices busy all night.” It’s not clear, however, just how much of the swearing Zemler heard will make it on the show’s final broadcast – but if you’re lucky, you may get to hear Cyrus riff on how she ruined SNL’s parody of her by modifying her catchphrase “that’s pretty cool” to include an f-bomb.

3. Twang

In spite of Cyrus’ flashy new persona, the onetime Disney star has country roots — which she lays bare in the MTV special, albeit in the form of sparkly chaps and a similarly flamboyant cowboy hat. More importantly, though, the twang makes its way into her music: the pop tracks of Bangerz have been reimagined as country-tinged tracks backed at times by a full string section.

4. Twerking with animals, Part 2

Remember when Cyrus twerked with teddy bears during last year’s VMAs? (How could you not?) MTV, never one to let a good idea lie, will revamp the stunt somewhat for Cyrus’ Unplugged special, which will apparently feature the singer twerking onstage with two men in a horse costume and grinding herself into their (its?) back.

5. Madonna getting spanked

Madonna will perform a duet with Cyrus during the special, a mash-up of We Can’t Stop with Madonna’s 2000 hit Don’t Tell Me. Cyrus also apparently spanks Madonna and rubs herself all over the Queen of Pop during the performance — which sees the both of them wearing sparkly country-inspired outfits to boot — while Madonna, as previously noted, continuously copies Cyrus’ tongue-out pose.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/arts/television/what-to-expect-from-miley-cyrus-mtv-unplugged-special-tongues-tongues-and-more-tongues-and-madonna/feed0stdTV Miley CyrusQueens of 2013: The year in fashion, from Michelle Obama to Miley Cyrus and everything in betweenhttp://news.nationalpost.com/life/style/queens-of-2013-the-year-in-fashion-from-michelle-obama-to-miley-cyrus-and-everything-in-between-2
http://news.nationalpost.com/life/style/queens-of-2013-the-year-in-fashion-from-michelle-obama-to-miley-cyrus-and-everything-in-between-2#commentsTue, 17 Dec 2013 22:15:02 +0000http://life.nationalpost.com/?p=129197

NEW YORK — It was a year for pixie haircuts, chunky flat shoes, bangs on our first lady and bare skin … lots of it, on movie actresses and pop stars. Fashion always has its royalty, and this year, Kerry Washington was a queen. For real royalty, we had Kate Middleton, making the rest of us mortals feel a little better by flashing her mommy tummy. If Kate made us feel good, Lululemon didn’t, when its chairman appeared to blame women’s own bodies for problems with those popular yoga pants. A look back at these and other key fashion moments of 2013:

AGOAi Weiwei's According To What?, at left, and David Bowie Is..., at right.

MICHELLE’S BANGS

Nobody would call bangs a new trend, but when the first lady’s involved, things take on more significance. In fact, U.S. President Barack Obama actually called his wife Michelle’s new hairdo the most significant event of his second inauguration. Unveiled just in time for the festivities, the new hairdo made enough news to have its own (unofficial) Twitter account, @FirstLadysBangs, which issued alerts like “Just got a text from Hillary Clinton’s side-part.”

By the time she appeared in a lovely Stella McCartney floral frock and high red leather pumps as a judge on Project Runway, it was clear: In the realm where Hollywood meets fashion, Kerry Washington is royalty. On her hit show, Scandal, playing professional fixer Olivia Pope, she was all professional Washington — Washington, D.C., that is — but on the red carpet, she was glamour personified. Case in point: that Marchesa gown she wore at the Emmys, all cream and white and flower appliques, fit for a queen.

AGO

KATE MAKES US FEEL GREAT

Much has been said about the fashion sense of the Duchess of Cambridge, aka Kate Middleton, but in 2013, it was something a bit different that caught our eye. Peeking out under her blue-and-white polka dot dress as she emerged from the hospital post-childbirth was a pronounced “mommy tummy,” a normal development but something most celebrities keep under wraps, until their personal trainers have whipped them back into magazine-cover shape. Thanks, Kate!

Watch out, British paparazzi, there are tools to make your meager eavesdropping insignificant! Here comes the new breed of private-space invaders: The Chopperazzi!<span style="font-size:1.25em;line-height:1.3em;">British tabloid media is in hot water over the phone-tapping scandal. Its overly aggressive journalists found a back door to the secrets of public and celebrities alike. They broke into the daily supposedly-confidential phone conversations. Then they published it. How ruthless! How inconsiderate! How <em>old-fashioned</em>!!!</span>
<span style="font-size:1.25em;line-height:1.3em;">Watch out, British paparazzi, there are tools to make your meager eavesdropping insignificant! Here comes the new breed of private-space invaders: The <em>Chopperazzi</em>!<!--more--></span>
[caption id="attachment_129210" align="alignright" width="496" caption="Lyle Stafford/Postmedia"]<img class=" wp-image-129210 " title="Mullti Rotor" src="http://wpmedia.news.nationalpost.com/2012/01/jeffisgr8t-2123110.jpg?w=620&quot; alt="" width="496" height="326" />[/caption]
<span style="font-size:1.25em;line-height:1.3em;">About a year ago, French company ‘Parrot’ introduced its <em>AR Drone Quadrocopter</em>, every paparazzo’s dream gadget. As you can see in the video below, the <em>AR Drone</em> is a tiny helicopter which flies on four rotors and has two cameras—one facing to the front, another facing down. Best of it all, it’s controlled by an iPhone, iPod or iPad, and it projects the footage captured by the cameras onto your handheld device’s screen.</span>
<span style="font-size:1.25em;line-height:1.3em;">For those who crave higher quality intrusion, <em>Siteline</em>, a Victoria B.C.-based company, built an eight-rotor frame which can carry your professional SLR camera to new heights—literally. Now you can shoot a high-vantage point pictures even in the flatlands of Saskatchewan. Whether it’s an overall shot of the scene, or a peek through your sexy neighbor’s bedroom window, there are no limits for your flying camera. <em>Siteline’s</em> camera can even be pre-programmed to fly at a certain time to the certain GPS position and shoot a video, or photographs, while you’re safely away, building your alibi. Although, as Lyle Stafford, the photographer who took the picture of it, points out—this flying intruder is definitely susceptible to shotgun bullets.</span>
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpmROfhd_6E&w=640&h=360%5D
<a href="http://nationalpost.com/photos">View more photo galleries</a>

LULULEMON, NOT SO MUCH

Remember those popular yoga pants that had the unintended effect of being see-through? Well, ladies, turns out the ongoing fabric problems with those pants, including pilling, was YOUR fault. Or rather: the fault of YOUR THIGHS. Founder and chairman Chip Wilson of Lululemon Athletica noted in a TV interview that “Frankly, some women’s bodies just actually don’t work” for the pants, because of thighs rubbing against fabric. Now Wilson just actually won’t be working as chairman of Lululemon; the company announced his resignation from the post in December.

AFPAnxious shoppers wait to get their hands on an iPhone 4S in Beijing.

TAKING IT ALL OFF

No thigh-rubbing problem for Gwyneth Paltrow, who was happy to show just how little cellulite she has when she appeared at the Iron Man 3 premiere in a dress with sheer mesh panels on the sides, leaving little of her lower body and, er, posterior to the imagination. But we all nearly forgot about Gwyneth when we saw actress Jaimie Alexander at the “Thor” premiere, her black gown expanding the see-through effect to the midriff and upper regions. Let’s just say these actresses are saving money on underwear.

A Paris runway show full of mournful symbols — and lots of black — was designer Marc Jacobs’ sombre goodbye to Louis Vuitton in October after 16 years in the influential post of creative director. Under Jacobs, who also has his own eponymous brand, Louis Vuitton became the most lucrative fashion house in the world, in part thanks to Jacobs’ creation of a ready-to-wear line. He was replaced by Nicolas Ghesquiere, formerly at Balenciaga.

Evan Agostini/Invision/AP; Jason DeCrow/AP filesModels Iman and Naomi Campbell teamed up to make strides in diversity among models on runways around the world.

TAKING DESIGNERS TO TASK

Iman and Naomi Campbell are legendary supermodels, but this year they lent themselves to something different: promoting diversity on the runway, by calling out designers whose catwalks were almost completely white. The two women joined modelling agent Bethann Hardison in their Balance Diversity campaign. Explaining their purpose, Iman, now 58, said she was shocked to hear there were fewer black models on the runway than when she stopped modeling in 1989.

Lyle Stafford/PostmediaSiteline's multi rotor vehicle used to capture images and various other remote uses in Victoria, B.C. January 11, 2012.

LESBIAN COUTURE

The message was unmistakable: At the Karl Lagerfeld haute couture show in Paris, the designer sent not one, but two brides down the runway for the finale. The brides walked hand in hand in their feathery concoctions, a clear vote of support by the designer for France’s gay marriage law. The show came only nine days after hundreds of thousands of people marched in Paris in opposition to the law.

Lyle Stafford/PostmediaSiteline's multi rotor vehicle used to capture images and various other remote uses in Victoria, B.C. January 11, 2012.

WE GOT THE PUNK

Who knew that punk would become high fashion? That development seemed to crystallize in May, when the hallowed halls of The Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted a new Costume Institute exhibit, “Punk: Chaos to Culture,” celebrating a movement that embraced anarchy in the 1970s. “Despite its best intentions, punk has come to symbolize integrity and authenticity,” said curator Andrew Bolton.

AFPA Chinese police stands guard after police block off the area outside an Apple store in Beijing's Sanlitun shopping district.

THE FLAT SHOE, THE PIXIE CUT

Think short, ladies! In shoe stores this year, you could see a trend toward flats, including a notable reinterpretation of those chunky Birkenstocks. The first ripple effect would be comfort, of course, but the changes are more profound, notes Virginia Smith, Vogue’s fashion market and accessories director: “Every woman wants a flat right now, and that has a big impact on fashion because it changes proportion.” Another trend: pixie hair, on everyone from Michelle Williams to Anne Hathaway to Jennifer Lawrence. “It will have an effect beyond celebrity and the runway,” Smith says. “A lot of these women are very influential.”

REUTERS/Pilar OlivaresDutch citizen Joran Van der Sloot sweats while sitting in the courtroom during the reading of his verdict, in the Lurigancho prison in Lima January 13, 2012. Van der Sloot, who was arrested but never charged in the 2005 disappearance of 18-year-old Alabama native Natalee Holloway on the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba, admitted to killing 21-year-old Peruvian business student Stephany Flores after meeting her in a casino in Lima and is being sentenced today.

TRENDSETTER MILEY?

Speaking of influence, dare we call Miley Cyrus a trendsetter? She was already a trailblazer with her pixie cut from 2012, but hey, you probably were too busy watching the stuck-out tongue, teddy-bear leotard and nude bikini (which falls into the baring-it-all trend at the MTV Video Music Awards). Only weeks later, though, she was all elegance in sequined Marc Jacobs at the Night of Stars gala. Miley the fashion icon? Not by the standard definition. But heading into 2014 she was one of the most-watched people on the planet. “Blurred Lines,” indeed.

Joel Ryan/Invision/AP, File; Jeff Daly/Invision/AP, FileFrom classy to sassy and back again: 2013 may go down as the Year of Miley, when it's all send and done.

NEW YORK — It was a year for pixie haircuts, chunky flat shoes, bangs on our first lady and bare skin … lots of it, on movie actresses and pop stars. Fashion always has its royalty, and this year, Kerry Washington was a queen. For real royalty, we had Kate Middleton, making the rest of us mortals feel a little better by flashing her mommy tummy. If Kate made us feel good, Lululemon didn’t, when its chairman appeared to blame women’s own bodies for problems with those popular yoga pants. A look back at these and other key fashion moments of 2013:

AGOAi Weiwei's According To What?, at left, and David Bowie Is..., at right.

MICHELLE’S BANGS

Nobody would call bangs a new trend, but when the first lady’s involved, things take on more significance. In fact, U.S. President Barack Obama actually called his wife Michelle’s new hairdo the most significant event of his second inauguration. Unveiled just in time for the festivities, the new hairdo made enough news to have its own (unofficial) Twitter account, @FirstLadysBangs, which issued alerts like “Just got a text from Hillary Clinton’s side-part.”

By the time she appeared in a lovely Stella McCartney floral frock and high red leather pumps as a judge on Project Runway, it was clear: In the realm where Hollywood meets fashion, Kerry Washington is royalty. On her hit show, Scandal, playing professional fixer Olivia Pope, she was all professional Washington — Washington, D.C., that is — but on the red carpet, she was glamour personified. Case in point: that Marchesa gown she wore at the Emmys, all cream and white and flower appliques, fit for a queen.

AGO

KATE MAKES US FEEL GREAT

Much has been said about the fashion sense of the Duchess of Cambridge, aka Kate Middleton, but in 2013, it was something a bit different that caught our eye. Peeking out under her blue-and-white polka dot dress as she emerged from the hospital post-childbirth was a pronounced “mommy tummy,” a normal development but something most celebrities keep under wraps, until their personal trainers have whipped them back into magazine-cover shape. Thanks, Kate!

Watch out, British paparazzi, there are tools to make your meager eavesdropping insignificant! Here comes the new breed of private-space invaders: The Chopperazzi!<span style="font-size:1.25em;line-height:1.3em;">British tabloid media is in hot water over the phone-tapping scandal. Its overly aggressive journalists found a back door to the secrets of public and celebrities alike. They broke into the daily supposedly-confidential phone conversations. Then they published it. How ruthless! How inconsiderate! How <em>old-fashioned</em>!!!</span>
<span style="font-size:1.25em;line-height:1.3em;">Watch out, British paparazzi, there are tools to make your meager eavesdropping insignificant! Here comes the new breed of private-space invaders: The <em>Chopperazzi</em>!<!--more--></span>
[caption id="attachment_129210" align="alignright" width="496" caption="Lyle Stafford/Postmedia"]<img class=" wp-image-129210 " title="Mullti Rotor" src="http://wpmedia.news.nationalpost.com/2012/01/jeffisgr8t-2123110.jpg?w=620&quot; alt="" width="496" height="326" />[/caption]
<span style="font-size:1.25em;line-height:1.3em;">About a year ago, French company ‘Parrot’ introduced its <em>AR Drone Quadrocopter</em>, every paparazzo’s dream gadget. As you can see in the video below, the <em>AR Drone</em> is a tiny helicopter which flies on four rotors and has two cameras—one facing to the front, another facing down. Best of it all, it’s controlled by an iPhone, iPod or iPad, and it projects the footage captured by the cameras onto your handheld device’s screen.</span>
<span style="font-size:1.25em;line-height:1.3em;">For those who crave higher quality intrusion, <em>Siteline</em>, a Victoria B.C.-based company, built an eight-rotor frame which can carry your professional SLR camera to new heights—literally. Now you can shoot a high-vantage point pictures even in the flatlands of Saskatchewan. Whether it’s an overall shot of the scene, or a peek through your sexy neighbor’s bedroom window, there are no limits for your flying camera. <em>Siteline’s</em> camera can even be pre-programmed to fly at a certain time to the certain GPS position and shoot a video, or photographs, while you’re safely away, building your alibi. Although, as Lyle Stafford, the photographer who took the picture of it, points out—this flying intruder is definitely susceptible to shotgun bullets.</span>
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpmROfhd_6E&w=640&h=360%5D
<a href="http://nationalpost.com/photos">View more photo galleries</a>

LULULEMON, NOT SO MUCH

Remember those popular yoga pants that had the unintended effect of being see-through? Well, ladies, turns out the ongoing fabric problems with those pants, including pilling, was YOUR fault. Or rather: the fault of YOUR THIGHS. Founder and chairman Chip Wilson of Lululemon Athletica noted in a TV interview that “Frankly, some women’s bodies just actually don’t work” for the pants, because of thighs rubbing against fabric. Now Wilson just actually won’t be working as chairman of Lululemon; the company announced his resignation from the post in December.

AFPAnxious shoppers wait to get their hands on an iPhone 4S in Beijing.

TAKING IT ALL OFF

No thigh-rubbing problem for Gwyneth Paltrow, who was happy to show just how little cellulite she has when she appeared at the Iron Man 3 premiere in a dress with sheer mesh panels on the sides, leaving little of her lower body and, er, posterior to the imagination. But we all nearly forgot about Gwyneth when we saw actress Jaimie Alexander at the “Thor” premiere, her black gown expanding the see-through effect to the midriff and upper regions. Let’s just say these actresses are saving money on underwear.

A Paris runway show full of mournful symbols — and lots of black — was designer Marc Jacobs’ sombre goodbye to Louis Vuitton in October after 16 years in the influential post of creative director. Under Jacobs, who also has his own eponymous brand, Louis Vuitton became the most lucrative fashion house in the world, in part thanks to Jacobs’ creation of a ready-to-wear line. He was replaced by Nicolas Ghesquiere, formerly at Balenciaga.

Evan Agostini/Invision/AP; Jason DeCrow/AP filesModels Iman and Naomi Campbell teamed up to make strides in diversity among models on runways around the world.

TAKING DESIGNERS TO TASK

Iman and Naomi Campbell are legendary supermodels, but this year they lent themselves to something different: promoting diversity on the runway, by calling out designers whose catwalks were almost completely white. The two women joined modelling agent Bethann Hardison in their Balance Diversity campaign. Explaining their purpose, Iman, now 58, said she was shocked to hear there were fewer black models on the runway than when she stopped modeling in 1989.

Lyle Stafford/PostmediaSiteline's multi rotor vehicle used to capture images and various other remote uses in Victoria, B.C. January 11, 2012.

LESBIAN COUTURE

The message was unmistakable: At the Karl Lagerfeld haute couture show in Paris, the designer sent not one, but two brides down the runway for the finale. The brides walked hand in hand in their feathery concoctions, a clear vote of support by the designer for France’s gay marriage law. The show came only nine days after hundreds of thousands of people marched in Paris in opposition to the law.

Lyle Stafford/PostmediaSiteline's multi rotor vehicle used to capture images and various other remote uses in Victoria, B.C. January 11, 2012.

WE GOT THE PUNK

Who knew that punk would become high fashion? That development seemed to crystallize in May, when the hallowed halls of The Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted a new Costume Institute exhibit, “Punk: Chaos to Culture,” celebrating a movement that embraced anarchy in the 1970s. “Despite its best intentions, punk has come to symbolize integrity and authenticity,” said curator Andrew Bolton.

AFPA Chinese police stands guard after police block off the area outside an Apple store in Beijing's Sanlitun shopping district.

THE FLAT SHOE, THE PIXIE CUT

Think short, ladies! In shoe stores this year, you could see a trend toward flats, including a notable reinterpretation of those chunky Birkenstocks. The first ripple effect would be comfort, of course, but the changes are more profound, notes Virginia Smith, Vogue’s fashion market and accessories director: “Every woman wants a flat right now, and that has a big impact on fashion because it changes proportion.” Another trend: pixie hair, on everyone from Michelle Williams to Anne Hathaway to Jennifer Lawrence. “It will have an effect beyond celebrity and the runway,” Smith says. “A lot of these women are very influential.”

REUTERS/Pilar OlivaresDutch citizen Joran Van der Sloot sweats while sitting in the courtroom during the reading of his verdict, in the Lurigancho prison in Lima January 13, 2012. Van der Sloot, who was arrested but never charged in the 2005 disappearance of 18-year-old Alabama native Natalee Holloway on the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba, admitted to killing 21-year-old Peruvian business student Stephany Flores after meeting her in a casino in Lima and is being sentenced today.

TRENDSETTER MILEY?

Speaking of influence, dare we call Miley Cyrus a trendsetter? She was already a trailblazer with her pixie cut from 2012, but hey, you probably were too busy watching the stuck-out tongue, teddy-bear leotard and nude bikini (which falls into the baring-it-all trend at the MTV Video Music Awards). Only weeks later, though, she was all elegance in sequined Marc Jacobs at the Night of Stars gala. Miley the fashion icon? Not by the standard definition. But heading into 2014 she was one of the most-watched people on the planet. “Blurred Lines,” indeed.

Joel Ryan/Invision/AP, File; Jeff Daly/Invision/AP, FileFrom classy to sassy and back again: 2013 may go down as the Year of Miley, when it's all send and done.

Related

So what does it sound like? Surprisingly soulful for a year that was dominated by the likes of Miley and Robin Thicke (who both figure in, beside fellow chart toppers Macklemore, Daft Punk, Imagine Dragons and Justin Timberlake). As you might have guessed from the name, Lorde’s status lament figures pretty prominently — and is surprisingly enhanced some of the more openly synthy dance beats that figure in — but she’s only one part of year that seems a lot sadder in retrospect than it felt at the time. And check the impressive cut from club banger to soaring breakdown in the last fifth of the song.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGRQKKaox5Q&w=640&h=390]

(Also, if you’re wondering what 2013 looked like in pop music, Earworm has done a pretty great job of mashing up the song’s videos, too.)

Check here for more of DJ Earworm’s wizardry (I’m pretty partial to 2011), and a full list of the artists and songs featured is below.

Freed of any of the annoying inconveniences of being mayor — he still has the title but Toronto council removed most of the powers two weeks ago — Mr. Ford has been doing the one thing he’s really good at: enjoying himself, getting noticed and more-or-less campaigning full time for the job from which he just got the heave-ho.

Mr. Ford has always been a good campaigner, but now he has even greater advantages. Though the nightly jokes have petered out on U.S. networks, his name remains internationally known.

A congressional candidate in New York pictured Mr. Ford with President Barack Obama in a 30-second campaign ad over the slogan “Tired of politicians?” (The candidate, George Demos, appears not to appreciate that Mr. Ford, like him, is a conservative.) Yahoo Canada says the Toronto mayor placed second in its annual list of top searches, behind twerk twit Miley Cyrus but ahead of Kim Kardashian.

Mr. Ford has been compared to Kardashian a number of times, most recently by his replacement, deputy mayor Norm Kelly. Like the reality TV star, Mr. Ford doesn’t really have all that much to do and is largely famous for being his own ordinary self. His looks are part of the allure, as is his lifestyle: on the weekend Mr. Ford turned up at the Rogers Centre for a football game between two NFL teams, where he was photographed wearing a Buffalo Bills jersey and munching on some wings after allegedly stealing some guy’s seat because it had better leg room. Mr. Ford is big on sports jerseys: on one of his last days with real power, he turned up at City Hall wearing a Toronto Argonauts jersey, to the dismay of the Argonaut brass.

In case you were wondering however, the Ford brothers have no intention of accepting any of the offers they say they’ve received for reality TV fame. That might compromise the dignity of the office (plus their last show got cancelled after one program). So instead Brother Doug says they’re concentrating on their own YouTube career, soon as they get around to it.

You can see where this is going: In freeing Mr. Ford of the responsibilities of his office, save for the ceremonial parts, his opponents have created a Fordenstein monster: the mayor is now free to campaign full time, railing against his opponents, denouncing the “elite” and attacking the return of the “gravy train” that was his express ticket to the office.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries&w=640&h=390]

After learning that Mr. Kelly would be meeting with Premier Kathleen Wynne — neither of whom was elected to the position they hold but who now control Ontario’s taxes and expenditures — Mr. Ford dashed off a letter pointing out he was the one chosen by the voters. Remarking on council’s proposed property tax increase of 2.5%, he declared he could cut the rate and save “$50 million easy” if he had the chance.

Mr. Kelly had barely finished reading his message of condolence to the family of a Toronto police officer Monday when Mr. Ford was before the cameras, pledging : “Whatever I can do as mayor…we’re here to help them out.” He’d already been to the hospital to see them in person.

(Michelle Siu for National Post)

Will Ferrell says he hopes Ford gets re-elected. In a recent appearance as alter-ego Ron Burgundy on the Conan O’Brien show, he dedicated a song to “my dear, dear, dear friend Mayor Rob Ford of Toronto”. A Toronto artist has produced a Warhol-like image of the mayor, framed by bullet holes. That should go nicely with the wildly popular Ford bobblehead dolls, which sold out almost instantly in support of the United Way.

Good luck competing with that Karen Stintz. What’s John Tory got to offer, a lousy local radio show? How many bobbleheads has Olivia Chow moved, eh? Ford has nine more months to campaign virtually full time, while his potential opponents have real jobs to attend to. He’s already predicted, with typical modesty: “It’s going to be a bloodbath.”

“Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer,” goes the famous Chinese military adage. Someone should have told Toronto council. They’ve unleashed the Fordenstein monster to roam the city at will, wreaking havoc and winning over voters. A bloodbath indeed.

Taylor Swift’s fans have done it again, voting her the American Music Awards artist of the year for a third time.

Swift won Sunday night’s top honour, giving her a leading four trophies as fans celebrated the women of pop music.

Swift didn’t perform, but she was a constant presence on stage and the camera alighted on her as she danced to stars like Kendrick Lamar and Luke Bryan. Her win came after Katy Perry dazzled with her show-opening performance, Lady Gaga found another inventive way to grab your attention, Rihanna starred with her mother and Miley Cyrus closed the performances with the assistance of a giant lip-syncing CGI kitty on her song Wrecking Ball.

John Shearer/Invision/The Associated PressPeel Police have arrested a man in connection with the April 2011 murder of Kearn Nedd, a 28-year-old who was shot to death while attending a poker tournament at the Rozz Banquet Hall in Brampton.
Mr. Nedd, acting as a good Samaritan, intervened during an altercation between two masked gunmen and the organizer of the tournament, and was caught in the crossfire. The two suspects ran to a waiting vehicle and fled the scene.
<!--more-->
Police positively linked the firearm, a 9mm semi-automatic Berreta, used to kill Mr. Nedd after conducting forensic examinations of nine pistols found during a raid of a Mississauga apartment last June, said Inspector George Koekkoek. A significant amount of ammunition and drugs were also found in the home. Samir Abdelgadir, 30, appeared in a Brampton court Wednesday morning and was formally charged with accessory after the fact to murder.
“This is a significant development for us and breakthrough in this investigation,” Insp. Koekkoek said. “We certainly anticipate that it will lead to further information and ultimately the arrest of all those involved.”
Insp. Koekkoek said police are still investigating to determine the full extent of the man’s role in the homicide beyond possession of the murder weapon.
Police are asking the public for assistance in located two suspects. One is described as a young-looking black male, with medium dark complexion, approximately 5’9’’ in height, and medium muscular build. The other is described as a black male, approximately 20 years old, with medium dark complexion, about 5’9’’, and medium build.
<em>National Post</em>
[np-related]

Cyrus’ performance on Sunday was a far cry from her headline-making gig at the MTV VMAs in August, when she came under fire for her sexually suggestive rendition of We Can’t Stop alongside fellow chart-topper Robin Thicke. Instead, at the AMAs, the singer appeared onstage alone, singing the ballad as an orange tabby kitten lip-synched behind her.

Near the end of the performance, the kitten appeared to begin crying in front of its galactic backdrop, which showed lasers destroying what appeared to be planets and meteors. The odd duet ended when the cat winked and stuck out its tongue — Cyrus’ signature move. Watch the performance below:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t9_ygb0LU8&w=940&h=559]

“I’m really out of breath,” Swift said after taking the stage in a sequined mini-dress. “I was really going hard with the Wrecking Ball thing.”

The 23-year-old pop star also won country album of the year for Red and favourite female country artist and pop/rock artist. She spoke directly to her fans as she picked up her final award of the night.

“My lucky number is 13, and so far you guys have made 2013 the most magical year of my life so far,” she said. “I cannot thank you enough. This validates that if you voted for this that we are heartbroken the same way and we fall in love the same way and we’re happy the same way. And the fact that you would listen to my music means … we’re pretty much in it together, aren’t we?”

Idobi/Wikipedia“All the examined properties of social networks seen in modernized societies also appear in the Hadza,” a new study says.

Justin Timberlake was next with three wins — soul/R&B album, soul/R&B male artist and pop/rock male artist. The 20/20 Experience singer was not joined at the AMAs by his wife, Jessica Biel, which led to some speculation online — speculation that the actress herself was quick to quell. “I’m watching from home tonight,” Biel wrote on Twitter. “Calm down, Internet.”

One Direction and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis won two awards and Rihanna was given the AMA’s first Icon Award to go with her win as favourite soul/R&B female artist.

Rihanna and her mother took centre stage midway through the show when Monica Fenty presented her pop star daughter with the first Icon Award at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.

“Can we talk about how cute Rihanna’s mom is?” Justin Timberlake asked while accepting one of his three awards, before affecting a Caribbean accent. “She’s so proud of the Icon. I am too, Rihanna, I love you.”

Fenty told Rihanna how proud she was of her daughter’s success, saying, “I know the journey in your career has not always been an easy one.”

Rihanna herself accepted the award with words of gratitute for her mother, acknowledging that her road to fame had been bumpy for Fenty, as well.

“Just about 20 years ago is when I really started making your life a living hell with my annoying little husky man voice, you would call it,” Rihanna said on Sunday. “And I mean just disrupting the entire neighborhood. Westbury Road, Barbados, they could tell you that’s the truth. I annoyed every one of my neighbours.”

Kevin Winter/Getty Images; Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty ImagesRihanna accepts her Icon Awards from her mother at the 2013 American Music Awards.

Favourite rap/hip-hop act Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, meanwhile, used their rap/hip-hop album acceptance speech to send a message of tolerance.

Ben Haggerty, the rapper known as Macklemore, accepted the award for favourite rap/hip-hop album, then quoted Martin Luther King Jr. in a live satellite feed from the rap group’s latest tour stop.

“Due to the fact that we are in Florida tonight accepting this award I want to acknowledge Trayvon Martin and the hundreds and hundreds of kids each year that are dying due to racial profiling and the violence that follows it,” he said.

Florida became a focal point after Martin’s killer was freed under the state’s stand your ground law. It was the first win of the night for Macklemore and Lewis, whose album The Heist has been an unexpected hit and made them the AMA’s top nominees with six.

Recent chart-topper Katy Perry opened the show looking like a princess out of a classic Japanese painting. Dressed in a traditional Japanese dress, Perry’s show-starting performance of Unconditionally included dozens of colourfully clad dancers who waved fans, shadow danced in front of rice-paper screens and played the drums.

Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesKaty Perry performs Unconditionally at the 2013 American Music Awards.

British boy band One Direction was at times drowned out by screams during an understated performance of Story of My Life. That group won the award for best pop/rock album, beating Taylor Swift – who, incidentally, is the former paramour of One Direction heartthrob Harry Styles.

Timberlake strapped on an acoustic guitar and played a soulfully raucous version of Drink You Away, while Jennifer Lopez absolutely nailed the elaborate dance numbers during her tribute to Salsa queen Celia Cruz, taking two dozen dancers through their paces while wearing a shimmering silver bodysuit.

She winked at the crowd as she finished the number, the dancers sprawled around her on the floor.

Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesJennifer Lopez performs at the 2013 American Music Awards.

Lady Gaga and R. Kelly put on an elaborate production for their song Do What U Want, staging a presidential affair. Kelly played the president and Gaga a Marilyn Monroe-like mistress.

The Applause singer, meanwhile, had arrived at the AMAs earlier that evening in typical Gaga form: Atop a white horse puppet manned from within by two purple legging-clad humans.

Vancouver-based mining company Fortuna Silver says it has nothing to do with the shooting death of a protester in a town near the company’s mine site in Mexico<strong>By Peter O’Neil</strong>
OTTAWA — Vancouver-based mining company Fortuna Silver says it has nothing to do with the shooting death of a protester in a town near the company’s mine site in Mexico.
Police have arrested the alleged shooter implicated in the death of Bernardo Mendez Vazquez, who was shot last week during a protest that news reports have linked to opposition to the gold and silver mine.
The shooting took place in the town of San Jose del Progreso, where the mine is the chief employer.
The town and mine in the southwestern state of Oaxaca have been the sites of past conflicts involving groups who say the mine is an environmental threat to the arid region’s scarce water supply.
But Fortuna Silver president Jorge Ganoza said “misinformation” is behind media reports tying his company to the violence, which also left another protester with a leg wound.
“We, as a company, and our team in Oaxaca are saddened by these senseless and continued acts of violence in the town of San Jose, related to a long-standing political struggle for local power,” Ganoza said.
“It is not the first incident of this nature in the last few years. It is in no way related to our activities or involves company personnel, and we really hope that the people of San Jose, with the assistance of the state authorities, will find a long-term solution to this senseless violence.”
He said reports that the company is a threat to the area’s freshwater supply are inaccurate, adding the mine gets all of its industrial water supply from a rain-supplied tailings pond.
Some Spanish-language media reports suggested the clash was related to protests over a project that was viewed as an attempt by the company to access the town’s water supply.
“This sad incident is related to an infrastructure project that was being handled by the municipality of San Jose and it’s related to the inter-connection of sewage and drinking water in the town of San Jose, and it has nothing to do” with the mine, Ganoza said.
He said rival groups, one linked to the municipal government and one connected to the opposition, have clashed around other projects such as road construction.
“There is constant misinformation because I believe there are groups interested in linking us to these issues,” he said.
“It always makes better news to have a foreign company involved in some of this, and some local groups can be more visible if this is linked to an international company.”
A spokeswoman for the Canadian group MiningWatch criticized the company’s position.
“There has been conflict over this project and worries over potential impacts on local water supplies for several years,” said Jen Moore.
“Instead of trying to deny any responsibility, the company should work to help diminish tensions.”
Last week’s violence wasn’t the first time conflict swirled around the mine.
In 2010, the San Jose mayor and another city official were killed and four others hurt in a clash that also resulted in a priest opposed to the mine being detained and beaten, according to the Catholic News Service.
In 2009, hundreds of police were called to the mine to break up a blockade.
Fortuna Silver, a junior mining firm which also has a silver mine in Peru, announced in September that it began production at the $55-million mine in Mexico. It was expected to produce 1.7 million ounces of silver and 15,000 ounces of gold in 2012.
The company says the mine employs 450 workers, with half coming from San Jose and neighbouring communities.
<em>With files from Jeff Davis, Postmedia News</em>

Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesLady Gaga and R. Kelly perform at the 2013 American Music Awards.

Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesBritish boy band One Direction performs at the 2013 American Music Awards.

Councillors took turns defending the city as a lean operation, despite more than 10% of full-time staff earning in excess of $100,000. Mayor Hazel McCallion, meanwhile, took aim at the provinceAs Mississauga braces for an unprecedented property-tax hike, a local residents' association appeared before council Wednesday to make their case that the city's budgetary process is fundamentally flawed.
The group highlighted 10 separate areas for improvement, from establishing a budget review panel to bringing ballooning staff salaries under control, and criticized as "cursory" council's analysis of portions of the 2012 budget.
In response, councillors took turns defending the city as a lean operation — despite more than 10% of full-time staff earning in excess of $100,000 — and arguing the need for a competitive advantage. Mayor Hazel McCallion, meanwhile, took aim squarely at the province.
<!--more-->"The property tax was never intended to look after humans; it was intended to look after property. It's loaded with social costs, health and education," Ms. McCallion said, suggesting provincial downloading was at the heart of the problem. "We're up against a system that doesn't work."
The mayor noted that council recently passed a resolution calling on the province to implement a municipal wage freeze, but got "no support." The province also failed to make requested changes to the arbitration process to allow the city to get a better deal in bargaining situations, Ms. McCallion said.
Chris Mackie and Dorothy Tomiuk of Miranet, which represents various ratepayers' groups throughout the city, rejected her logic.
"The emphasis upon our presentation is that the city is the master of its own house," Mr. Mackie said. "It has its own budget, and we would like to see budget committee directing staff in some areas to reduce costs… The city needs to get its spending under control now."
Their presentation during budget committee Wednesday, one of the last days of wrangling before the budget goes to council for formal approval, comes amid a proposed 7.4% hike on the city's portion of the property-tax bill. Combined with the regional budget and education tax rate, the overall hike would amount to 2.8% — still tough medicine to swallow for a city that has remained debt-free for decades as development dollars poured in.
But that has now become the past, and the future appears even grimmer: The projected tax increase on the city's portion of the bill for 2013 sits at 9.7%.
"We believe that the budget process is flawed and should be improved," Mr. Mackie said, noting labour and staffing costs account for more than two-thirds of the city's operating budget. Salaries in the fire department, where 109 captains and 13 district fire chiefs make more than $100,000 annually, "are almost beyond comprehension," Ms. Tomiuk added.
Mr. Mackie advocated freezing staff salaries for 2012 and adopting a "zero budget" approach, where all departments must justify every cent of spending each year, rather than building on the previous year's budget. The current "incremental" approach is simply not working, he said.
"Occasionally minor savings are identified. The process is incremental and is designed to increase departmental budgets," Mr. Mackie said.
City manager Janice Baker disagreed, saying the city works diligently each year to reduce costs in a delicate "balancing act" between service provision and taxation levels.
"We do not go into default mode when we start at the budget, you know, 'Here's a basket of money, now see how you can make that basket bigger.' I just know that's not the case," Ms. Baker said.
Councillor Jim Tovey said Mississauga staff salaries should be compared with other regions, such as Halifax or the Peel school board; Ms. McCallion concurred, noting the municipality must have incentives in place to draw top talent from across Greater Toronto. But Ms. Tomiuk suggested such comparisons were irrelevant.
"We're here to talk about the city budget," she said. "It doesn't matter what the school board is spending or what their budget is. You have your budget and you have your costs, and we are paying those fees through our taxes."
<em>National Post</em>
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She couldn’t resist. Singer Miley Cyrus smoked a joint on stage and twerked with a dwarf during the MTV EMAs on Sunday.

The 20-year old pop star also took home the Best Video award for her hit song Wrecking Ball during a show with a strong lineup of other performers including Eminem and Katy Perry.

Cyrus opened the space-themed show singing the song We Can’t Stop, while wearing a silver spandex suit and twerking in the general direction of her smaller female dance partner.

To the delight of the crowd in Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome, Cyrus finished the number by sticking out her tongue, the same expression she flashed repeatedly during her eyebrow-raising appearance at MTV’s Video Music Awards in New York in August.

After winning the top award at the end of the show, she celebrated by demonstratively lighting up a large spliff and quickly taking a puff.

Marijuana is not legal in the Netherlands, but smokers can’t be prosecuted for possessing small amounts and it is sold openly in cafes known euphemistically as “coffee shops.”

Ian Gavan/Getty Images for MTVMiley Cyrus performs her song 'Wrecking Ball' at the MTV EMAs.

Cyrus, who long ago shed her image of innocence as the child star of Hannah Montana, has made no secret of her appreciation of Amsterdam’s attractions, arriving the Friday before the show and hanging out at the Greenhouse coffee shop downtown with several other stars.

She also wore marijuana leaf emblems in her earphones during a live rendition of Wrecking Ball against the backdrop of a giant video screen of herself crying.

The EMAs traditionally focus on global, rather than U.S. pop music acts, though there’s a lot of overlap: winners included Bruno Mars, who grabbed Best Song for Locked Out of Heaven, and Eminem both in the Best Hip Hop and Global Icon category.

Another notable winner was Katy Perry for Best Female Artist. Perry, apparently caught by surprise at her win, spit out a sip of champagne and took the stage to thank her fans.